$350 Million Investment Needed to Open Casino Closest to New York City, Panel Says

ALBANY — A state gambling panel declared on Monday that business interests seeking to build a casino in Orange County, just an hour from New York City, would be required to invest a minimum of $350 million in capital. Casino industry experts say it is a surprisingly low buy-in for what could be a billion-dollar franchise, and one that could cause serious problems for casino proponents in the Catskills to the north.

In recent weeks, lawmakers in Sullivan and Ulster Counties, centers of the long-faded borscht belt, have said they hoped the state would set a sky-high minimum investment in Orange County — perhaps as much as $1 billion — to discourage developers there and aid those promoting farther-flung locations.

The disappointment was palpable on Monday among those hoping for a Catskill revival fueled by casino revenue.

“I think it shows that they are rushing through this and that this has clearly not been thought out,” said Mitchell Grossinger Etess, the chief executive of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which has plans for a casino near Monticello. “The premium spot, and they are only asking $350 million? It doesn’t speak to creating economic development.”

The state panel, called the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, announced capital requirements less than three weeks after 22 entities submitted applications fees of $1 million to be considered as a full-scale casino operator.

The next step in the already speedy licensing process: To receive a full refund of the $1 million fee, potential bidders will have to withdraw within five business days.

The new capital-investment thresholds will require casino proponents in more remote parts of New York State to spend $70 million to $135 million, depending on their region and proximity to other new casinos. But locations closer to Manhattan and its rich vein of tourists and other consumers are the most prized by developers, and on Monday, it seemed unlikely that the required investments would cause any bidders to fold in Orange County.

Several deep-pocketed international companies, including Caesars Entertainment and the Genting Group, have announced plans for Orange casinos. Both indicated that a minimum investment of $350 million would not be an impediment.

Even lesser-known companies, such as Greenetrack, an Alabama dog-track operator that has proposed a $500 million casino in New Windsor, N.Y., seemed unfazed by the minimum investment, saying on Monday that its project would “yield billions in economic development for Orange County and New York State.”

Those sentiments were unlikely to soothe nerves in the Catskills, where full-scale Las Vegas casinos have long been envisioned as a potential economic lifeline — a belief also espoused by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who successfully pushed for the legalization of up to seven New York casinos as an economic-development strategy.

The presence of an Orange County casino could also make securing financing for a Catskill casino more difficult, according to experts.

“I’m not sure if someone wins a license in the Catskills they are going to be thrilled with the news that one is opening in Orange,” said John D. Sabini, the former chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. “They might want to keep the receipt and go to the returns windows, because their investment just got a lot more dubious.”

State Senator John J. Bonacic, a Republican whose district includes parts of Orange County and the Catskills, was more diplomatic, saying he was pleased that the county’s minimum was higher than the Catskill area, where the capital requirement was set at $100 million to $130 million. But Mr. Bonacic said he was “concerned that the level they set is still too low” for Orange County.

The board said the minimum capital investments would include building “at least one hotel and other amenities,” as well as related expenses like environmental remediation, infrastructure construction and the purchase of furniture and gambling equipment.

But the board also said that casino projects would entail up to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs that it did not include in the capital requirements — things like land acquisition, legal work and marketing. Those expenses could swell the investment in a hypothetical Orange County project, for example, to nearly $500 million, it said.

New York is already home to five upstate Indian casinos and nine racetracks with electronic slot-machine parlors, but voters in a 2013 referendum allowed up to seven new casinos, complete with table games like craps and roulette. Formal bids on the casinos are due on June 30, with the board expected to make final decisions by early fall.

Correction:

An article in some editions on Tuesday about a New York State gambling panel’s decision to set investment minimums for new casinos misidentified the developers behind a planned project at the Grossinger’s resort in Liberty, N.Y. It is a project of Foxwoods Catskill Resort, a partnership of Muss Development in Brooklyn and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. It is not a project of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which has plans for a casino near Monticello.

Charles V. Bagli contributed reporting from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: State Panel Says $350 Million Investment Is Required to Open Casino Closest to City. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe